Genuine, traditional, farmhouse Red Leicester is a difficult cheese to find, because the majority of Red Leicester is made on a large scale. This one is the real deal (coming to you from Quicke's Farms in England), and you can definitely taste the difference. The flavor is much more complex and intense than that of the mass-produced variety. Quicke's also takes the traditional step of binding their cheese in cloth, resulting in a more pronounced, earthy flavor by the rind. Red Leicester is a mellow cheese with a crumbly, granular texture. It gets its bright red color from the addition of annatto, which is ground achiote seed from the annatto tree. Red Leicester is a rather young cheese, as it is only aged for 10 to 12 weeks. As it ripens, it develops a distinct nuttiness and faint lemony finish that separates it from all other English cheeses.